Update: June 4, 2011 - I've taken an awful lot of flak for this review (and that's fine). I stand by the review because I can't honestly recommend this phone in good conscience. With that in mind, I realize that not everyone may share my opinions, and that's why I suggest potential purchasers go and take a look at it to see if they will notice the screen issues as much as I do.

Further, a lot of you seem to think I was using or inspecting the phone in a critical way; this was not the case. I noticed the screen and performance issues immediately and continuously under normal use conditions. I have played with many devices at shows, events, and stores, and the X2 came up lacking.

The original DROID X was, by most accounts, a great device. And now, nearly a year later, we have the DROID X2, which takes the same shell as the original but with a seemingly substantial spec-bump to fill it. The most notable improvements: a dual-core Tegra 2 processor and a qHD screen.

Unfortunately, what looks good on paper doesn't always work out well in practice, and this is one of those times. The Tegra 2, powerful as it is, isn't enough to make the X2 as smooth and responsive as its single-core competition (like the Incredible 2), and the qHD screen makes a few sacrifices to hit a higher resolution.

With the basics established, let's take a look at where the X2 shines and where it falls short.

The Good:

The 4.3" display can be extremely bright.

Good build quality (with one very minor exception - details below).

Very good battery life. You can easily get a full day of moderate use out of the X2. With lighter use, two days is feasible.

Depending on how you look at it, the browser is consistently smoothish, even when viewing full webpages with flash ads. (Smoothish because it seems to scroll at maybe 8fps, but it's consistent at 8fps; it doesn't stutter).

The Bad:

The screen is... bad. Very bad. There's an entire (lengthy) section devoted to this further below. I'd suggest reading it if you're contemplating purchasing the X2. Hell, read it either way - it's worth knowing.

Performance is generally sluggish, and transitions are too often not smooth.

Occasional issues with connectivity and syncing.

NinjaBlur feels like a half-effort and occasionally leaves you wondering what Motorola was thinking.

Android 2.2 at launch. Gingerbread update is promised and Motorola seems to be relatively on the ball with 2.3 updates, so hopefully it comes soon. The general performance/lag improvements in Gingerbread could go a long way here.

In A Sentence: A lot of horsepower under the hood doesn't make up for a lack of RAM, a seemingly poorly-coded UI, and a device-ruiningly-bad screen.

You should buy it if: ... Well, to be honest, you probably shouldn't. The screen is terrible, and it has a few performance issues that will be difficult to remedy with custom ROMs (if the X2 ever gets them.)

Hopefully you're still with me here - this is probably a review you're going to want to give a full read.

Deep Dive

Build Quality

Build quality is identical to that of the DROID X. In other words, it's very solid. All the bits fit together snugly, and the plastic is rubberized, lending a soft feel to the device. Complementing those traits is the fact that weight seems to be just about perfect; while the DROID Incredible 2 was so light that it felt like a toy, and the EVO is so heavy it feels like a brick in comparison, the DX2 seems to hit the sweet spot.

Full-size: note that the Home button sits slightly lower.

I did notice one minor problem: one of the four function buttons below the screen sits almost imperceptibly lower than the others and isn't quite as stiff and springy. It's not very noticeable and I'm guessing it's an isolated incident rather than a design flaw.

PenTile Display: When An "Improvement" Isn't

One of the pitfalls of low-resolution displays is that you can actually discern the pixels. Because the pixels are large, the image on the screen will never be sharp. The obvious way to combat this problem is to up the pixel count. In the past few years, displays with a resolution of 480x800px (or 854 in the case of the taller DROID X) have become fairly common among smartphones and typically provide a great, sharp image with little downfall. More recently, though, companies have moved towards qHD, which checks in at an impressive 540x960 pixels. And so what we have with the DX2 is a spec bump in the display department; while the original DROID X rocked out to the de-facto 480x854, the X2 has seen the aforementioned upgrade to 540x960. While that sounds good on paper, it doesn't play out well in practice, thanks to the use of a PenTile display.

Note the diagonal gridlines; these are visible even with the naked eye, and almost look like an intentional gradient (but it's not).

The DROID X2 is supposed to be a high-end device, and with that comes the expectation of an excellent screen. Unfortunately, even run-of-the-mill lower-end devices have better screens than the X2. It's almost painfully bad - enough so that I would never, ever buy this phone, and I would actively advise anyone who asked to steer clear of it. It's bad in every single way conceivable:

It's not bright. Or... okay, well technically it can be bright - very (very!) bright. But automatic brightness isn't, and every single issue below becomes more apparent the higher you crank the brightness. So your options are either to have a bright screen that's demonstrates poor quality, or have a dim screen that... demonstrates it less obviously.

You can see the grid lines between the pixels. It's difficult to demonstrate this with pictures, but I've done my best. It's so bad that it visibly breaks up text even when you're not actively looking for it.

You can also see the pixels. Seeing the grid lines is worse, but being able to see either is nearly unforgivable. (For those curious, the reason for this can be found in the Wikipedia link above or the AnandTech link below.)

The display ghosts. Quite badly. For those of you who don't know what display ghosting is, it's exactly what it sounds like: the image drags or trails, typically because of poor response time.

Viewing angles are bad in an odd way. The colors are only correct when viewing the screen dead-on; turn the phone even a few degrees and colors become a bit off, slightly reminiscent of a "rainbow" effect. However, once you've angled the phone so that the colors are off, they don't get worse even at extreme angles (hence "in an odd way.") Still, it's enough that there's maybe 20-30° where oranges look orange, and the other 330-340° the orange becomes a puke-yellow.

Color reproduction is crap. Specifically, banding is abundant. In other words, anywhere there's a gradient, it displays bands of color rather than a smooth transition. Pictures illustrate this well.

Edges are jagged, thanks to the diagonal layout of the PenTile display.

From full arms-length, the screen looks fine and you can't notice the banding. But from what I'd consider "normal" viewing distance, it's terrible, which prompts closer inspection, and it's all downhill from there.

During final editing of this review, Droid-Life took a closer look at the screen of the X2. For an even deeper look at the downfalls of PenTile displays - including many of the complaints I mentioned above - check out AnandTech's rundown. Ninja edit: As commenter Chris clarifies below, PenTile displays aren't all bad - just seemingly Motorola's poor execution.

Performance Woes

This is the first dual-core device I have had the chance to thoroughly review, but not the first time I've used one. Unfortunately, the DROID X2 falls short of the other dual-core devices I've tested; worse still, it falls short of even single-core devices. It's outclassed by the DROID Incredible 2, and even my year-old EVO chokes less (granted, my EVO is running CM7 rather than a stock Sense-based ROM, but the point stands).

Three examples where it's noticeable:

Unlocking the device. If you unlock shortly after locking, the lockscreen comes up immediately. But if it's been more than a minute, it takes a second or two to respond. This occasionally results in annoying cycles where you think you must not have pressed the unlock button and hit it again, only to have the screen flicker on and then off again.

It sometimes hesitates when scrolling between homescreens (taking a second to respond at all). And other times, when it does scroll without any hesitation, it can be laggy. The lag seems to mainly happen when one of the widgets has updated - but as they're static (not animated) widgets, I don't really see a reason for visible stuttering.

What's especially disappointing: when running a Tesseract LWP by RasCarlo, my EVO rarely stutters at all. As in, every few minutes it might. The X2? Constantly. You literally cannot do any action on the phone without it stuttering and bogging things down. For a device that's packing twice the potential horsepower, that's unbelievably concerning.

I'll freely admit these issues may not be uncommon on somewhat older Android devices, but they shouldn't happen on a Tegra 2 device, and I'm going to guess that NinjaBlur and/or a lack of RAM is/are to blame. If you're using a static wallpaper, you probably won't notice any lag on a day-to-day basis. While lay users may not notice, power users may not be able to say the same.

NinjaBlur

Close followers of AP know that I hold no bias against manufacturer UIs. I like HTC's Sense, and I don't mind Samsung's TouchWiz. NinjaBlur, however, isn't so great. The performance issues mentioned above are enough of a turn-off as it is, but what makes it slightly worse is that some aspects feel half-baked.

Prime example: there's a Social Status widget that only displays your most recent Tweet/Facebook status. You can post a new status/tweet, but it doesn't show any feeds (including your own) and there's absolutely no way to reach any feeds from within the widget/app. This means that to see feeds, you need to do one of two things: either add the Social Networking widget, or open the Social Networking app. But there's a key difference in the two; the widget opens up a gallery-style viewer, while the app opens up the standard list-style view. You can get to the list from the gallery, but not vice-versa. And you can't get to either from the Status widget.

Social networking stupidity aside, NinjaBlur isn't all bad. The other widgets generally add some visual flare while functioning as expected, although they don't necessarily add value. In essence, NinjaBlur mainly sticks to re-skinning the stock Android widgets to be more attractive, but contributes little beyond that. I'd be fine with this - even happy - if it weren't for the previously mentioned performance issues.

Connectivity

Connectivity is a mixed bag. Cellular reception seems to be good, even slightly better than average. Same with WiFi - it's able to pick up signals where the EVO and DInc2 could not. But even when the signal is strong (when the phone is within 3 feet of the router), it loses connection with alarming regularity. Further, it seems to not want to update social feeds unless I'm on WiFi. For example, I went 8 hours yesterday while using only 3G and heard nary a social peep from the X2. The instant I turned on WiFi I had a few mentions/DMs as old as 7 hours.

I'm not really sure what's to blame, but my guess would be the something in the "Battery & data manager," although everything is set properly (data saver off, normal battery mode, etc.)

Battery Life

This is perhaps the one place that the X2 really stands out. Battery life is good, especially considering that this is a dual-core device with a 4.3" screen. However, it's a bit tough to really say exactly what you can expect. As I mentioned when talking about the screen, it's downright dim when using automatic brightness. Thus, you can certainly expect good battery life if brightness isn't a concern. However, I think most people would want to turn the brightness up manually (and rightfully so), which makes the question of battery life a bit more tricky to answer. At full brightness, the screen feels like a small sun, in which case you'd probably manage to make it through an 8 or 9 hour workday if you're not using it very heavily. With brightness somewhere in the middle, I'd still estimate that you could go through a full day of moderate use on a single charge.

In a sentence: battery life is better than most other powerful high-end Android devices, but you're still talking about a high-end phone.

Camera

The camera is thoroughly average, as well. It's adequate for a phone camera and will do in a pinch, but you won't be using it to take professional photos any time soon. I think part of the blame can be attributed to the "continual auto-focus" feature - after a few seconds, it stops showing the auto focus box and you're left guessing. Clarity was also lacking.

As is common in phone cameras, the lighting just isn't great. In bright indoor settings, for instance, it overcompensated the darkness.

Wrap-Up

It's an odd thing, really: I don't hate the X2. In fact, I almost like it. But even so, the screen alone is enough for me to tell people not to purchase it, let alone all the other more minor issues. It's unfortunate - I had high hopes for the X2 across the board and it failed to deliver on nearly all of them.

One thing that makes me question myself is that I seem to be largely outspoken on my issues with the display. Few people have complained about it on the ATRIX, which has the same PenTile qHD display, and similarly few have griped about it in early (p)reviews of the X2.

So, my ultimate suggestion? If you're considering purchasing an X2, go play with one. Check out the menus, browse the web, look at pictures, and watch a video clip. If the issues with the screen don't bother you there and you won't miss the LTE connectivity, then the X2 may be the device for you.

Comments

It seems like Motorola really phoned this one in - a Tegra 2 is worthless in a skinned environment if the widgets/menus/browser/etc. haven't been optimized to take advantage of the dual cores, and it seems that's just what happened here.

Also, the puny amount of RAM is pretty lame. As for the PenTile display, yeah - Motorola is putting everyone over a barrel claiming this gimmicky sub-pixel trick is somehow better than WVGA.

I hope the BIONIC's display, if it is qHD, doesn't utilize this PenTile garbage.

Simon Belmont

LOL, PHONED this one in. I see what you did there.

Oh wait, you were being serious. Yeah, this upgrade sucks.

Mark

512mb of RAM is more than enough. Screen is personal preference, people these days. Tearing something good down just cause it doesn't have the numbers you want.

Aaron Gingrich

It's not that it doesn't have the numbers I want, it's that it doesn't have the performance it needs. 512MB RAM could be enough if NinjaBlur wasn't poorly coded. Other high-end phones have 768MB-1GB of RAM (including, for example, the Motorola Atrix), and there's a reason for that. Android devices run better once they have >512MB, especially when they're running a custom UI (regardless of what UI it is).

Jack

"I did notice one minor problem: one of the four function buttons below the screen sits almost imperceptibly lower than the others and isn’t quite as stiff and springy as the others."

You're referring to the HOME key, I'm sure. Was the same way on my DroidX. The power button also felt terrible for me.

Thing is, the two left buttons are actually one button, on a rocker. Same with the right two. Horrible design, in my opinion.

Chris

PenTile isn't always so obvious though, the Samsung Galaxy series has always used it, as do evidently most AMOLED displays on the market. And the Galaxy S-series has gotten very high marks for its screen clarity and brightness, despite the use of PenTile, although it should be pointed out AMOLED screens use the RGBG layout rather than the RGBW layout used in the Droid X2.

From what I've read, it seems Motorola's major mistake was not using PenTile, which is already a common technology, but using Pentile RGBW on an LCD display.

Aaron Gingrich

Very good point that I should have included. I added a link to your comment, thanks :)

jim

Glad Moto decided to jip us current DroidX users on this. I would've kept this line of phone for my upgrade(going to next step up) but not now. I'll be looking at HTC, despite out how much I hate Sense. Then again, with an unlocked bootloader, that's not really an issue ;)

Uphor8

You have a Droid X and you are talking about hating Sense? Am I reading this right?

JayMonster

Yes, shocking as it is there are people that dislike Sense more than Motoblur. I have yet to figure out why Sense gets a pass, it is ( to me) every bit as bad as Blur or TouchWiz.

Herms

It is bad but if I had to choose one of the three (touchwiz, blur, or sense) it would definitely be sense. I run liberty on my droid x and it is so much better than any skin could ever be, the liberty team should be the ones designing UIs. I also used sense on an evo and hd2 and if it is a sense rom like on the hd2 it is usually pretty smooth (still not the best) compared to htc's stock sense.

I haven't noticed any issues with the display, except that it gets whiter if you look at it from extreme angles.

I don't see any jagged edges or cross-hatches. And I looked at the icons as closely as I possibly good and still didn't notice jagged edges. And as the reviewer noted at the very end, no one's complained about other phones with qhd screens.

I wouldn't be surprised if the colors are a little off like another review said, but I haven't noticed.

I haven't noticed any lagginess when unlocking or swiping screens.

Yes the Motoblur widgets are a bit lame, but I just trashed them, no big deal. I purchased the sense-like beautiful widgets clock over a year ago and still was able to download it for this phone without purchasing it again.

So I'd say try it out first. The downside of some of the other phones were not much internal storage (incredible 2), poor battery life (thunderbolt and others), no hdmi, or lack of accessories like multimedia docks and so forth (the droid x2 has an ultimate accessory pack available with everything).

The downsides of the Droid X2 are: no 4g (but my area doesn't have it regardless), no front-facing camera (I can live without it since virtually no one else has it). Also it comes with Android 2.2, but I'm sure that will be updated very soon. And also there's the locked bootloader issue, although it has already been rooted (GingerBreak), and there are already roms for the atrix (another motorola tegra 2 phone). Also, I would have preferred 1 gig RAM instead of 512, but I haven't seen any app or game that didn't run well yet (except Netflix doesn't work on this phone yet).

The upsides are the cost ($100 cheaper than the Thunderbolt and Charge - with discounts and trading in my old phone, mine came to $95), the Tegra dual core processor that all the tablets are using (there's even a Tegra Zone app with links to some games for it).

So really, if you can't wait for the Samsung Galaxy S II (which is months away, and may only be on AT&T at first), and if you don't have 4G in your area (i.e. 90% of us) or don't care about 4G, this is I think the best phone at the moment.

Junkemale

What is the name of the clock widget you purchased? I think I'm getting this phone.

I just got this phone and like it very much. I don't have any lag issues and I really like the screen.

Bluefire

I agree with you. While I noticed some of the display issues in this review, I think most users don't care enough to be as anal retentively obsessed with them as the reviewer. I love this phone. My only complaint is two things: 1) didn't ship with Gingerbread, and 2) turning autocorrect off doesn't really turn it off.

Thanks for your comments. It is now a couple weeks later and I still love my Droid X2 very much. Super fast, great sounding as a phone, and great screen. I can't say enough positive about this phone.

Khronyk

The phone is a great phone and I can't wait to see it become better with Gingerbread. I have had no issues with the display. It is no super amoled + but to me the resolution bump looks great. The brightness is superb and view in the sun is second to nothing else I have played with. I notice no lines or trouble reading. The only thing I notice is color reproduction of greens and some reds. They seem a little off but it has not been noticeable except if I held it next to another device with better color reproduction. Also I have seen it only with menus and apps bit video and pictures look crisp clear and beautiful. The software right now has some faults like lag with live wallpapers on. It evens fails to load your active wallpaper and just gives a black background on occasions. Also occasional music skipping while multitasking and using a headphone jack has occurred. I heard it doesn't happen over Bluetooth so it seems to be a bug. I find the phone great aside from lag with live wallpapers. The battery life and screen made the decision easy fro me over the Thunderbolt. With no 4g yet and no need for the useless feature of a FFC I felt it won hands down. The charge has a bautiful screen and good battery life but touchwiz was horrible. It would get the same lag issues in my trials on static wallpapers than the dx does on LWP. Plus I still have no faith in sammy.

Oh @doug I am using Netflix and smooth as butter on my DX2. I haven't updated from the old hacked Netflix that didnt check device id.

bill

The DROID X2 is the best phone I've owned, no question about it. The reviewer's poor experience makes me wonder if the review model was defective. My display is clear and beautiful and the processor is like butter. Highly recommended!

this article made me rethink buying it. I need to get back in the store and see the X2 next to the Incredible 2, side by side. I am having commitment issues. I am ready to ditch my OG Droid, yesterday. It takes a full minute to show me my apps in the app drawer. I need a new phone!

Aaron Gingrich

I think that sounds like a good idea. Compare the two side-by-side and see what you think - and if you remember to, stop back and leave another comment to let us know what you think and what you chose.

joansie

I understand and agree with you because we have more experience with refined taste. Not untill a moto bionic wirh a qwerty 5 row keyboard comes out will i buy another phone. I bet you do not disagree. Your writings are more valuable then some relize. Send me all your artices they are brillant. Xo joansie

Darrin

You should try to refine your spelling.

Brett

Reviewer is named Gingrich. Nuff said

Mark

What does his name have to do with anything?

rushmore

This review appears to be an outlier
for other reviews of the device and I agree it is an outlier.
1. The display has better contrast, brightness and color than all but the Charge and I prefer the colors on the DX2, since no cartoon reds.
2. Formfactor (like the DX1) is better for one hand operation than the other 4.3" devices.
3. Radio reception is fantastic
4. Battery life is great
5. Not having the performance issues the reviewer reports
6. Blur UI seems very functional and as good as other launch/UI options
7. N64 and PSX emulators rock real hard with this device
8. Great touch response makes Vpads for game emulators tolerable.
9. Solid build
Though I disagree with the reviewer, from a near binary standpoint, there are issues with the DX2:
1. MP3s pop & skip- especially when multitasking.
2. Flash appears to sometimes hang in the background after exit (my theory).
In regards to 1. and 2., The gtablet has same chipset and OS without these issues.
3. Something in the Motorola firmware seems to force all browsers mainly to mobile Flash sites, even after adjusting the UA string and setting the other browsers to desktop mode. Makes no sense.

Aaron Gingrich

Other reviews of the device I've read also say it's not enough and doesn't keep up with current competition.

Ryan

Bought my dx2 the other day to replace my og droid, and I love it. I do notice some lines on screen but only on certain colors, and I also notice some slight lag with unlocking the phone (both with the power button and with the on screen slider). Apart from these the phone is rock solid. The battery life is good considering the screen and the cpu its running, and in general everything just runs smoothly. Will be comparing side by side with my gf's inc2, should be interesting.

right_mr

While I haven't played with a Droid x2, I own a moto. Atrix. While on paper it looked great, in practice it was a real mixed bag. Apart from a performance and multi tasking boost over my desire HD, for example I can refresh news rob, download 5 large you tube videos listen to music and browse the web at the same time, its the extra ram that makes the atrix just about useable as a phone. The Droid x2 has a measly 512mb. If you are a light mobile phone user who doesn't multi tasking abilities you may be fine. If however you do multi task regularly then I suggest you stay away from this device. Shipping with android 2.2 is simply criminal. Also there is no sign of gingerbread on my attic. Yet HTC and Samsung have already released gingerbread on lots of handsets...the browser on my HTC was far superior to the one on my moto. That said flash play is superb on the atrix. Sometimes I really love the fact that the moto has a qhd screen and huge battery, the software and implementation from Motorola largely disappoint when I compare this to my desire HD.

Overall extrapolating the atrix with similar hardware except arguably more powerful than the x2 due to double ram and the screen looks very sharp and bright is 4.0 vs a larger screen which will be less sharp on the moto. Bottom line is I would rate this handset as being far inferior to the dual core monsters being released by HTC and Samsung. Moto are a very distant third and I would never buy another Motorola phone when there are far better products out there...

Noob

wtf this phone is awesome I own it nothing lags at all. reviewer stop crying about minuscule shit.

Andrew

HI, thank you for the spot-on review. I absolutely love my Droid X, but was sad to return my Dx2. It suffered from most of the issues that you described. The power button lag was annoying and the thing was just quirky. One of the hard buttons sat lower and lacked the tactile response of the others. This isn't nit picking when the product costs 500.00. I feel vindicated now after feeling so guilty for returning an X2. Im happy to say I'm back to my X and loving it.

rushmore

You are complying to a biased review and disgrace the name Andrew ;)

Jason

Hey you idiot reviewer, you sounds like a fan boy of one certain brand...

This post sounds like it totally bashing Motorola DROID X2.

I left androidandme.com as my daily website and came to androidpolice.com... And see this bias shit... What the heck...

Reviewer are to review phones fairly rather than just bashing the phone... Tsk...

This phone is epic...ish. I upgraded my lg ally to a droid x, then a week later this x2 comes out so I returned the x and got it. The screen is great and I havent experienced any lag. True, it can take about 0.7 seconds for it to wake up but people shldnt be in such a hurry anyway. Lifes too short for nitpicking. I have to look really hard to even see the pixels, but I did notice them right off and didnt care. When holding the phone at comfortable viewing distance it looks perfect. Also, the camera rocks.

Horseman

The camera portion of this review is a joke. Yes the camera defaults to a continual focus mode, but you can easily change that to auto focus. You can even drag the focus area around the screen, and it never disappears.

Also, the display is sharp, though there is some ghosting. I don't notice the pixels...mainly because I don't have it an inch away from my eyeballs.

Dain

"Also, the display is sharp, though there is some ghosting. I don’t notice the pixels…mainly because I don’t have it an inch away from my eyeballs."

Pretty much this. All these reviews bashing the display make me laugh when they use their 50x zoomed pictures as evidence.

Thomas

I very rarely comment on these things but this was the worst, most biased review of a phone I have ever read. If I didn't in despise when people are so petty to throw out insults in comments i would defiantly insult the author of this review.

How can you complain about a screen that is good on battery life, sharp, and that you can see in sunlight on the lowest setting???

Oh yeah if you get out a magnifying glass you can see some of its flaws, but who looks at their phone with a magnifying glass?

And why do people review phones and spend so much time talking about things that the user will customize to their liking anyways? I didn't even look at motoblur because as soon as I got my phone I installed Launcherpro and experience no lag or any other performance issues.

Please no one take the guy who wrote this post seriously. I went from an og droid rooted running cyanogen 7 to the droid x2 and I love it...

David Ruddock

I think the review was written for the 90% of people who don't modify their phones as soon as they purchase them.

It's aimed at the guy deciding between a Verizon iPhone 4 or an Android handset - because let's face it, they're kind of the same market. And what differences is he going to notice? Which ones isn't he going to notice until spending a week with the thing?

It's great that you find that, when modified appropriately, this handset works as you want. For the average consumer, your modifications (even a custom launcher) are just seen as enthusiast tinkering, and therefore irrelevant to the larger market.

Ryan

To david ruddock, this review is not written as you see, it is written by someone who is too picky like other people said. People generally have an idea if they want to buy an apple product bcuz itards seem to be born like that.

The reviewer fails to realize that all of his little faults are pointless since he would just load up a custom romour whatever, so it doesn't matter if motorola got blur perfect or not since he's not gonna use it anyway.

Also, you said that the phone works as intended after you mod it, but I can tell you personally that this phone works fine. This review is just biased and poorly written to be honest. I'll admit that the phone isn't perfect, but no device is. I still love my x2, I will never regret buying it.

David Ruddock

Using a proxy can't keep your poor writing from giving you away, bud.

Ryan

A proxy? I wrote another comment like last week under the same name, from this same phone. my poor writing stems from using swype and not checking everything i write.

TJ

I've had this phone for about a week and have not seen any of the issues the author is complaing about. I disagree with his complete drubbing of the phone in fact. I wish it had come with 2.3, but otherwise I'm very happy with it. I think he must have been smoking something...

Ker

I never comment on these things but for the people who say the reviewer is "nit picking"; if you are happy to spend your hard earned money to go from a working 1 year old product to a not so well working brand new product then you may want to reconsider your device knowledge. The delay in unlocking the device is actually what drove me to look up reviews in the first place to see if it was only myself who had this issue. This phone, as it is, it a spit in the face to customers by Motorola; they gave Android 2.3.3 to the DX1 and Android 2.2.2 to the DX2.
To the people who say they have no problems with the X2...using the DX1 for more than 30 days and you'll see the problems. How can you tell what you have isn't working properly, if you don't know what working properly is supposed to be?

Neo

The views expressed in the review regarding the DX2 display are not unique amongst the review community. (See Anandtech, AndroidCentral reviews of DX2 and also reviews of the Pentile display in the Atrix).

I will say, that it's extremely pathetic for people to scream "bias" as a first argument against any review they disagree with. It's frankly an embarrassing argument to make in any legitimate discussion of a review as it does not substantively address any of the merits of the review.

The bottom line is that the Pentile display is a compromise. Some may feel that the display is worth it for the added resolution, the brightness, (the alleged power consumption gains?,) and the visibility outdoors, and maybe some will feel the tradeoffs are worth the increase in line aliasing or that the aliasing is general not noticeable -- BUT -- not liking the display because of the Pentile format has been a legitimate complaint since the Nexus One and Droid Incredible first sported them over a year and a half ago, and it's this reviewer's right and duty to indicate the issues with it in the DX2.

monachetti

The screen sucks, but is something I can deal with. Yellows appear dark, and edges aren't crisp. My wallpaper looks like a cheap gif file instead of a high res jpeg. Not complaining, just saying.

I run launcherpro, so no clue what the stock crap does. I don't have performance issues. The 512MB of ram run the ship fine...this comes from a 3D CADD software engineer who runs a 24GB Alienware at work.

My only legit complaint is media playback. It skips bad. I use my BT to play music via my car stereo. I have decided to keep my old DROID and just use it when driving...hell, it saves battery life on my DX2.

waverider

Anybody else having issues with the camcorder recording choppy videos? I have been recording in 720p and while recording and during playback, there are parts of video where it froze and gets pixelated or compressed looking.

Chad

He said the pictures arent clear but I dont think he turned it up to 8 mp.

David

Dear Reviewer,

You're an idiot. You almost sound like you are personally offended here. Try to look at it from my point of view. I just gave up my Blackberry addiction for this phone. It was an admittedly tough decision, but after a couple weeks, I am very happy. For someone like me, waiting for RIM to get off their butts and give Verizon a new BB to be proud of it was inevitable that I wasn't going to wait forever. This phone is perfect for a convert. And I am willing to admit that I was wrong when I told everyone that I could never give up my Blackberry. This phone is great for someone like me who needed to "catch-up"

Shawn G

What do you expect him to do? Is he supposed to say that every phone he reviews is perfect? No where does he state that this review is for blackberry crossovers.

You know, it would be like a restaurant critic who said that the restaurant was overall good but the service was inexcusable compared to other restaurants in its class and he couldnt recommend eating there. But if you insist go get a drink and an appetizer to decide for youself before you decide to settle in for a seven course meal.
Then you get on here and call him an idiot then proceed to tell us its better than the McDonalds youve been eating for the last three years.

He's doing what he does. Reviews phones. You need to do your job as a consumer and read multiple reviews. Before you buy, I might add. It sounds like you and several of the other haters are just suffering from buyers remorse.

Sorry for the long rant, but dang, no one forced you to read/agree/dislike the review. Theres no point being a douche because you dont agree.

Dan

After reading this review and others like it I feel like I bought an upgraded x2. My phone runs like a dream and I've had no issues with the screen. Out of the box maybe it runs terribly but I have all of the blur stuff and verizon apps disabled. Maybe that is why mine runs so well. I've never used blur so I'm not missing out on anything. All in all this is a great upgrade from the droid 1.

charissa

I have been looking at both phones and you review has made my decision much easier.
Thanks

kyle

This is all bullshit. I got the x2 on the release day and its gorgeous. I've compared it to other phones and it just blows them out of the water. That whole thing about the display is a dumb observation. Who's gonna stick their fucking eyeball to the screen to look at all of the pixels? A fucking moron. Using as all other people do, the screen definition is perfect.

Jennix

Wow, I have had none of these issues with mine and I use all of the same features you have described quite often. Mine is quite responsive and snappy all the time and I have never lost a connection to wireless even being quite a distance away. I am wondering if somehow you have a defective one in someway.

tim

I got my dx2 on the release date and my mom has a dx. I haven't noticed any issues with the screen, but I use a screen protector loike most other people who just spent assloads of money on a new phone, that combined with not holding the phone 1 inch from my face and I think the issues you mention are unnoticeable. By the way, cell phones cause cancer so if this guy keeps looking so close we wont have to worry about crappy reviews anymore

jason

So I started reading this review (on my X2) and when I noticed the author didn't even take the time to learn all the features of the phone I figured the review was useless. I based this on the same logic the reviewer used when deciding the X2 was not recommendable. The reviewer could not find the setting to turn on updated for his social media appear... how nooby is he?

James

Good review. This phone is definitely sub par.

I loled at all of the kids with an X2 that came in here and threw a hissy fit over your reviews.

You weren't bias or an outlier. Fact of the matter is that this phone is subpar and will not keep up with competition for a week.

VK

Sub pixels - NinjaBlur seriously is that what the phone is for lets see what the phone does well
- Sound quality A+ (this is a phone right really important)
- Battery Life A+ I am a 6am to 11pm user with about 2-3 hours of calls, bluetooth and gps on battery management takes care of it
- Display A big and bright and leave it on auto if you don't want your eyes to hurt with an over bright diaplay
- 3G Data Connection A- (who needs wifi if the 3G runs and Battery life is good)
- I have no idea what the reviewer means that he gets not a peep when using 3G - I use K9 mail (IMAP keep alive) and get about 500 emails a day and they showup on my phone within seconds
- Keyboard A+ one of the best on screen keyboards (the swype mode could be better)
- GPS A++ This thing locks on in seconds even inside
- Build quality A+

As far as keeping up with the competition I got a Droid Charge the display was out of this world but the problems voice quality average, battery life I am looking for a power outlet by 5pm, 3G data kept disconnection, How about 4G (I work in one) it would suck power at the same speed as data both very fast, GPS would not lock on for 10 minutes. As much as I regretted losing that display and the 4G speed it had to go back, bad data and battery life.
A good phone must 1. Have good phone quality, 2. Battery Life, 3. Stable 3g data network 4. Build quality everything else is secondary and the Droid X2 hits a home run in all those categories.

My wife has a Droid X and yes the X2 is hardly an upgrade but the X was a great phone and for 6 months later the X2 is slightly better costs the same so why complain.

If you don't mind carrying a brick get a Thunderbolt with an extended battery if you don't like to carry a brick get a Droid X2. If your eyes still work you have a choice of smaller screen phones but I need the 4.3

basskidd

YES!!! FINALLY SOMEONE REALIZED THE PROBLEM WITH THE MOTOROLA PENTILE DISPLAYS!!!! *Yes i know where the caps lock button is.

Android123

There is nothing wrong with the screen on this phone (I have the X and X2 side by side with the same theme and icons) It's much brighter and clearer than the screen on the original X and everyone is over-exaggerating when they say it's not of good quality. When you take a photo of the screen with a camera, of course you will see some kind of pixel deformity, but in no way shape or form is this screen even close to being poor.

vennie

If you can't focus a camera I can't really trust your review. Your pics make the phone look bad.

matt

Anyone ever heard of the x2 turning itself off in mid stroke and rebooting?mines done it about 5 times now in the 1 month that I've had it.

Droid X2 PU
When playing music I could not adjust music with out having to turn phone off and back on
Poor sound volume lots of missed calls
Applications lockup several times a day even when just adjusting volume
When phone goes to sleep and the is a long lag time before it comes on.
Buttons on the bottom are small and hard to push
on/off button is center top of phone awkward with large camera bump and hard to locate
adding apps takes additional steps
only 8 gig memory card.
Charging base difficulty to attach and disconnect because of HDMI port
Used it for two days constantly dropped signal constantly when using pandora in same location that original droid did not and new droid charge never drops.
Misted 5 calls second day I had the phone because of tiny little speaker hole hard to hear calls even when at maximum volume.
After only having the Droid 2x for two days it took over a hour of arguing with two sales rep and the manage to get Verizon (Eureka ca min store) to take the phone back and I had to pay a $35.00 restocking fee. I could believe the store manager kept arguing with me saying there was no difference between the charge and the droid 2x LIKE “I just wasn’t use to it”. I need a” task killer”, I could get him to understand I wasn’t running anything it would lock up when I was adjusting the volume and turning it on it would freeze. With 2 different CPU’s one a duel and no he was insisting there was no difference? Just because the both run android don’t mean they work the same.
I don’t know why the sales are pushing this Droid x2 phone over the charge unless they are getting a bonus to recommend this one and it’s going to be obsolete in a few months when the new 3 version comes out.

I got the Samsung Droid Charge just in few hours I can tell it is so much better.
The volume is much better 2 speaker holes.
I can listen to music without havening to keep turning it back on before I can to adjust the volume level.
Graphics and color far superior on the charge difference between nigh and day
I like you can change it to just swipe the screen either direction to unlock it
User interface much easer and user friendly.
Camera super fast compared to the x2 very little lag time.
32 gigs vers 8 I can load all my cd and still have 14 Gs left
On and on .....

Dave S.

HAHA there are a million different ways to agree/disagree with this whole situation from Verizon down to Motorola to the reviewer. Let's not even bring up the bashing and pointless arguments about bias because after all this is a post about PHONES and everyone is different so everyone's experience will be unique. All these problems could stem from any number of reasons because Droids can do anythinggggg, the person's Juice Defender could be glitching and dropping signal, one of your feeds could be interrupting your MotoBlur and making it lag, WHO KNOWS. As an EE/SW Engineer, I know that we V&V until our eyes bleed but shizzzz happens. The more personal experiences (which is what reviewer's review boils down to anyways, right?) we can get, the better off we all are. We can then form our own opinions about the general quality of the phone and we all (hopefully) go home happy. Knowledge is power and 99.9% of people lack it.
My 2c: I’m big into the fact that A PHONE SHOULD BE A PHONE. LOOK AT APPLE (and no I’m not a fanboy), if you pick up an iPhone it works, and works every time incredibly well. Yes, the X2 will sometimes putz along, but when its working right (most of the time) it is a pretty darn good phone. The X2 gets closer to that essential value of what a reliable PHONE is. EG: Wake up from home button, no annoying repositioning of the phone in your hand to reach the interrupt button. EG: The phone works when you want it to work unlike my Droid Charge which couldn’t even pick up a 1X signal reliably let alone 4G (11 miles from a tower), nor could it send tones to navigate through phone menus like voicemail WTF WTF WTF? A million other problems and in 4 weeks I was on my 3rd warranty replacement. EG: The qHD screen isn’t the best BUT IT DOESN’T BLOW THROUGH BATTERY. What good are any of the points that any of you bring up if your phone doesn’t have juice to PRODUCE THE PROBLEMS YOURE TALKING ABOUT after 3 hours of use. Sure AMOLED looks all cute but it used 88% of my battery with ScreenFilter on 40% (imagine without it), it’s not even the 4G that’s burning through it. At least with the X2, if someone has a heartattack in front of me I FEEL that the phone will be there in a time of need. As little as that may mean for some of you, it makes me sleep better at night. If you guys spent the same amount of time searching for workarounds – albeit you shouldn’t have to right out of the box – that it took you to complain about others’ viewpoints, you would have probably already found a solution by now. LauncherPro works like a pro and look how with 1 touch of a button from the Market, the entire Blur argument doesn’t even apply to me anymore! Don’t be a complainer, get it done homie.

Moral of the story: there’s always a trade-off. For those who are slow - read everyone’s reviews or rants, prioritize what you think is important in a phone and decide for yourself. For some reason I don’t like how the AppStore decides what apps you have access to and thus why I don’t like iPhones. I dunno it’s just my personal preference and doesn’t apply to all of you. Don’t get on someone’s case for giving you information that whether you agree with or not, is useful. “We are all whores in some way.” –Beerfest… a.k.a some people are OCD and DO care about the granularity of PenTile from .2318 inches away or that the reproduced green isn’t their exact idea of what green should be. If you’re not OCD then find some other thing to be pissed about and let us all know about it so you can help be a solution and not another one of those negative people.

me

I love this phone and all of the things that it does and can do!!

Okey Dokey

So I've had the x2 for about 2 weeks. It's ok that you aren't a fan of the X series, but no matter how you explain it, your revue reeks of "bias". My x2 is lightning fast, the screen looks terrific (and I upgraded from a Galaxy S phone). My wife has one too, and she loves it.

Rob Gordon

I think you should change your launcher. Both my wife and my sister changed to GoLauncher or ADW, and they love the speed. I think the recent gingerbread update will help quite a bit.
My wife's 1st phone was also experiencing similar lag. Went to verizon, switched it for another one and the problems went.

Here is what I suggest:
1. Change the Launcher (eliminate the 6 home screens)
2. Uninstall some of the garbage apps
3. Remove all the motorola widgets (they suck)
4. Update to Gingerbread (released yesterday).
As always a review of a phone should have more than one sample. The beauty of Android is the ability to customize to your heart's desire.

Gregg

Good Grief,
What a tear down for a nice update to the Droid X.
I own both.
The for mentioned issues are ridiculous.
The X2 hops a bit faster than my X.
Graphics are no worse that the X.
NOT sluggish.
Like any smart phone, there are 3rd party enhancements to face lift any phone.
Like mentioned above, Get Go Launcher, Get a job and get with it!
If your bitching about performance go back to your flip phone!

ALIKAT

I personally own the DROID X 2 and i wouldnt have it any other way! all of the problems aaron talked about i have not had and ive had this phone only a few days from the store release date (may 26). I love my DX2. all phones have some problems. this is a phone i think you should check out i love it!!

-JJ–

I've upgraded from the Samsung Galaxy S too. Fortunately,I have not experienced anything the reviewer was talking about. But I did get OTA Gingerbread and I don't use Motoblur. The screen is much crisper than the Droid Charge. The animation is smooth and fluid. The battery life is decent. The build quality is top notch. LTE is overrated and uses a lot of battery power. You can hop onto a WIFI network that's just about everywhere these days. My only gripe is the physical buttons on the front but I guess that's just personal preference. The camera is sharp but the color temperature is a bit wacky. The call quality is fantastic. The GPS is spot on. Video and graphic renditions are superb. It's fast and powerful enough to play HD video on the big screen. I do miss the physical camera button though. Overall this is a fantastic phone.

Nave

I've owned quite a few Android smartphones. I've used phones from all 3 big Android vendors: HTC, Motorola, and Samsung. I've also owned an iPhone 3GS from Apple. While all of the phones that I have used ( including recently the Samsung Fascinate and HTC Droid Incredible 2) have their technical merits and operating pitfalls, the Droid X2 is definitely a good choice. I have had nothing but "good luck" with my Droid X2. Granted, I have to agree that Motoblur is definitely a pitfall. It... sucks. There really isn't much to be said about it: it's slow, cumbersome to use, and it doesn't even look that great. Using a separate, third party, market downloadable launcher like Go Launcher EX will improve the X2 by leaps and bounds. Add in some task management app(s), and you've got a shining star of a phone. Honestly, the Droid X2 is a GREAT phone on its own, but Verizon and Motorola screwed it up with their software implementations - side step that, and you'll have a good phone. The GPS is excellent, locking on within 70 meters for me, almost instantly. The graphics are excellent, showing texture detail and SPEED in games that was not seen with PowerVR and Adreno graphics chipsets. The dual-core CPU powers through pretty much any task. The screen is sharp and crisp, has good brightness, and shows better in sunlight than SAMOLED and SuperLCD (in my opinion). The build quality is top-knotch, with a sturdy weight and good materials, letting you feel like you have quality in your hand.

I used Droid X for 8month (and love it) and now a I need to find out how to get my money back from ebay auction of Droid X2 and send this piece of crap to seller.

john

After 2 mos of owning a x2, I can say the x2 is crap. Random reboots wtf? It criminal that Verizon and Motorola can charge so much money for subpart products. Do they even use these things they sell to the consumer?

vince

well I couldn't disagree more with this review. my buddy has an x and side by side the x2 display is miles above. I haven't noticed any banding but the display is very bright which is an issue with a lot of phones. sharp, bright, and yes if I get magnifying glass I can tell the pixels are wonky on the motor logo on boot, but recall its a phone, and in use the display is great. battery life kills my dinc. nice package too, very solid, would prefer touch home button, back button etc that is my biggest beef. running eclipse os 0.6 fast and rock solid.

Brian

I'm sorry but I think your review was a bit harsh. I will admit that when I first got the x2 with 2.2.2 there were some issues with lag when changing screens left or right. Especially when it was first turned on. However, all that went away with the update to 2.3.3. I thought it was a good phone when I first got it. With Gingerbread it's even better. I've had no issues with music play back. Wi-fi never drops. The display is fine for a phone, it is just a cell phone after all.

ghostburton

Alright Dear creator You're by far the biggest moron i have ever read a review from. That being said here's what i think of your book you wrote above.Thank you. We're all refreshed and challenged by your unique point of view. finding it, misdiagnosing it and then misapplying the wrong remedies here. You are so wrong in many of these discussions you assessed above in. Just because a few people had problems with there's because there's always room for error doesn't mean all of them are bad.
How can bash on one of the greatest phones of all time. Not every phone can be perfect, in fact i can think of one phone that is perfect with no issues.
I have had 2 these phone in the last year. I use them heavily neither had issues. Now with Ginger Bread software update its way better. You also have to remember this is just a phone not a tablet bro. I Refuse To Have A Battle Of Wits With An Unarmed Person. To top it all off i can't believe bagged on this phone then had the audacity to say you kinda like it. The camera is incredible, there's so much more this phone can when getting into it that most phones can't. If you have this phone be glad it's an amazing phone. The only thing i agree with you on out your whole book is the ram for 512. Other than that you should re go through this and write it again.
It's all trash all of it and to be honest I don't give fuck you or anyone else has to say. For you to get online shit talk a good phone your garbage bro. That's completely and utterly a new low for even you. I'M done with this shit. Next time rethink thinks before you just ramble on to try to make your self look cool on your own blog site. your a serious joke.

Korban Dallas

ghostburton, I cannot believe your post because of your unprofessional
attitude. The post you are referring to did not have bias and he was
very clear and thorough. You seem to have problems forming complete
sentences. That along with swearing is why people can't take you
seriously. I understand some phones in a line may perform better than
others, but like he said - depending on use some will experience trouble
while others cannot. Your above rant was uncalled for. You could have
challenged some of the things he said line by line instead of being a troll.

masterreefer

Ive had my Dx since it came out and plan to upgrade to the Dx2 soon. My bro has the Dinc and I dont like it. This review I find funny (especially after all this time) Funny how he cant even focus on the first pics and rubbed snot all over it. Then he hides the screens and compares the back only?? Dx2 has a top notch screen. Take for example the dinc2, sure the screen looks glossy and clean but in my opinion it looks cheap and a little too glossy especially out where there is sunlight. Dx2 will float my boat.

ghostburton

This phone really is incredible!
i bought a 32gb memory card to put in it and it runs screaming quick.

james k

i disagree pretty much 100% with the reviewer. i love this phone and the screen issues are really not bad at all to me.the only drawback is of course the lack of 4g but if thats an issue get the bionic.

Kaitlyn Joslyn

I had the Droid X...upgraded to X2. The diplay pixels aren't near as nice...very surprised. Droid X was crisp and clear! This is weird...colors aren't blended...you can see patterns. Upgraded to get Mirror Mode....and now I can't even figure out how to do it. Anyone's help would be so appreciated!

David Evan

my Droid X2 phone has just been upgraded by Verizon to Android 2.3.4. So the review should be updated accordingly.

Maybe I am prejudging but the greater concern I have is with overall Android voice recognition intelligence compared to IOS 5. This may or may not be the killer OS feature reason for switching to IPhone.

Specifically I don't so far have great experiences with voice recognition intelligence on this Android phone, especially with Bluetooth name lookups. I had similar issues on the original Droid.

Also I have not experienced any of the display problems mentioned. I tend not to watch Netfix or full length movies on a phone but do a lot of still and video photography. Could this be more of an issue with some specific devices?

Dave

I just bought a DX2. I dl the apps for windows 7 from Go and all the Widgets. Withe everything on the phone and a massive amount of home screens the transitions slowed down and the ram meter seemed to stay in the red. I have uninstalled all those apps and back to speedy DX2 out the box. version out 2.3.4 its fun compared to my HTC Eris Droid from two years ago. I have no issues with the screen and have 20/20, yet again I am not taking pics of the screen on a high resolution digital camera that could pick up lines on machine polished diamond. So lets keep it real or at least in real world application. of the device its not mentioned to my HTC

morrie

I really don't think you sold that "screen sucks" explanation. I took a magnifying glass to my wife's iPhone and saw the same thing. Do you really expect a photo-accurate, calibrated color display? Even the best modern LCD's are interpolating colors (yes,even Apple). So, where are your standards/criteria for comparison? If the screen is so bad, what is a good example? Have you shown a magnifying glass example of a "good" screen?
I do have some lag issues, and might tend to agree with you about the RAM. I bought this phone because I was tired of being stuck in the lag-lane, but this phone doesn't completely solve the problem. (V8 w/2bbl. carb??)

I own one. No problems running 2.3.4, seems fast and responsive. I'm happy with it!
If I could win a contest on AP, I would take another one, but for now,...I'm happy.

Daniel

The droid x2 handset is only 6 months old and we are told that we won't be getting the upgrade to ice cream sandwich! That really bothers me and turns me off to motorola products. I have a lot of apps on mine. It reboots constantly (about 4 times per day). It always reboots when I put it in car cradle. It has become slow and unresponsive. I think that the authors comments regarding the 512 ram are spot on. I am moving to Iphone next.

CaptBP

I own one and this review could not be more right on the money. My screen constatnly locks up and won't take any input or lags to the point it doesn't appear it's ever going to respond. I am removing the battery at least daily to reset what appears at times to be a brick in my hand. For the record, I refuse to go back to Blackberry for the same exact reason, constant battery removal resets. I ALWAYS have the input freeze when trying to respond to texts and usually within typing 4 or 5 words. Games? Give me a break. The constant stuttering has turned me off to games on the phone. Video isn't bad but the lag makes it annoying to try and watch anything of length. And I can't tell you how many photo opportunities I've missed because the cameara "failed to initiate" when the phone has been turned on for hours. The review is spot on, for a what is advertised as a dual core device it is woefully lacking in performance. I'm done with this piece of crap and quite likely done with Motorola after their lack of response to the issues that appear to be effecting so many.

Jim

You're an expert. I'm amazed with your review. If anything I think you actually gave this device more credit than it deserved. My DROIDX2 has been replaced twice fpr malfunctions & along with the cons above, the battery life is poor, audio quality terrible, camera issues, buttons that stick, preloded with Skype yet no face cam, & overall junk! Impressive you spotted these pitfalls in this review! ,

Cobalt

This is probably the worst smartphone you can possibly buy. Almost every Google result I see related to an Android phone's issue, or every article I see floating around, is about the Droid X2 - and only the X2. Not the X1. Not the Droid series, sans the X suffix. JUST the X2. I, unfortunately, own one, and know a friend who also has one. We both have countless problems with them and factory resets have come and gone with them.

The phone's usable and does everything you expect a smartphone to do, but the random glitches call for certain unnecessary measures to be taken to preserve the phone's usability since the OS corrupts over (give or take) a month's use and things start going awry, like the virtual keyboard. Swiftkey fixed this for me.

Everything else this article pointed out was spot-on. Drop an extra $150 on that other phone - don't consider this one.

Wyatt Laman

16 months into owning the X2, I agree with most of the reviewers statements. The lagginess is super annoying. The wifi disconnects constantly and is another annoyance. I'm tired of the amount of time and work I have to put in just to get this phone to function. When I need it, it is frozen, slow, or disconnected.

The screen quality was not as much an issue for me. I can see all of the complaints in my screen as well, but I didn't really notice them until I read this review. Like he said, get your hands on the device and use it to determine if you like it. If the screen quality affects your experience, don't get it.

Not as relevant anymore since the phone is two years old now. However the review will help me in my search for my next phone.

Michael Nix

i got one as a freebie after my old phone broke. while i agree with some of the issues with lag, mine is running 2.3.5 and its not that bad. it rarely stutters and is really responsive. i found that a ram booster that recovers unused ram will fix most if not all lag and it really is a great phone packing plenty of horsepower to so even intense gaming thanks to its tegra processor and higher end graphics